Paparazzi

It was a lovely day on the Oval today! The sun was out, the leaves were rustling, and the cameras were flashing.

Today was picture day. All upperclassman know what I'm talking about. It is the day OU hosts every semester to turn the campus and its students into cheesy layouts for the Prospective Student Services website.

You know what I mean...

It looks so natural...

It was humorous to watch this happen. They had all the students they had selected to be in the photos standing in a group near the gardens and they would pluck three or four at a time to go take photos.

The students standing in the group were awkward to say the least. There were about 12 of them and none of them would make eye contact with each other. One girl gazed out into the distance (Dale Hall probably never looked so interesting to her). Some of them stared at the ground. Most of them were texting and playing on their cell phones. None of this a was a surprise after the Sept. 8th post.

What was humorous about this scene was what happened when they pulled the small groups of students out of the group to take pictures.

Suddenly they were close enough to put their arms around each other, have fake laughs, and have mock conversations with one another.

As we all know, this is what all OU students act and look like on a daily basis.

You know, just chilling out on the wall of the Passion Pit, hanging with my friends. All of us wearing our school colors... it's no big deal.

The other beauty of the extravaganza was watching how other students reacted to this photography session/traffic block in the Oval.

Students were turning completely around to see what happens. Bikes became swervy and uncontrollable trying to contain their curiosity.

A few students walked by without looking at all, putting the hoods up on their jackets, worried that they may be caught on camera.

One of the male models for this photo shoot told me that a bike almost hit a camera man. That it almost looked like the biker was charging him, this makes me wonder, if this student was acting out of aggression.

Maybe he saw these pictures when considering being a Sooner and thought to himself Wow college looks like fun! Everyone just hangs out together on campus all the time! It is so diverse there! People wear school colors everyday! OU is the only place for me!

Then he arrived here and realized that those beautiful flowers are only planted during prime high school tourism times in the semester. That a good 80% of the time those gardens sit unplanted with brown dirt.

It's OK, I still love OU. As, I'm sure, this gentleman does too. However, to this I raise a question.

While considering OU and seeing these pictures, although you knew they were a little fake and cheesy, didn't you think (just a little bit) that college may actually be like what you saw?

Shout Outs!

* The guy who decided to walk with his bike when he found a friend and wanted to talk. That was just too sweet.

*To the guy on the bike with the awesome afro. Your hair is just cool!

*To the little boys that came to campus with their family.

-Particularly to the little boy that fell in the fountain!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOO PRECIOUS!